The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
